5G Densification: Can Next-Gen PON do the job?

5G officially made it to Gartner’s hype cycle in 2017 and it promises more than just faster wireless Internet – from connecting billions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, to enabling self-driving cars, to delivering more reliable and secure wireless broadband, 5G is key to a smart connected world of the future. On the other hand, 5G involves a new Radio Access Network (RAN) architecture that involves 10 times as many cell sites, known as 5G densification. In turn, each of these 10s of thousands of cell sites require multi-gigabit, highly-reliable front-haul or back-haul connectivity.